A driver who hit and killed a dog walker before carrying on with his jouney to a train station in Exeter has denied not seeing the woman in the road because he was using a phone app to track his train.

Jonathan Kane, 52, of Flood Lane in London denies prosecution claims that he had not seen Catherine Bailey and her two collies walking along Trewiston Lane, near St Minver in north Cornwall, on July 18 of last year because he was using a phone app monitoring the progress of a sleeper train he planned to catch from Bodmin to London before taking a flight to Germany for a business meeting.

Kane, whose trial started at Truro Crown Court on Tuesday, admits causing Mrs Bailey’s death by careless driving as well as charges of dangerous driving and driving with no insurance but denies the more serious charge of causing death by dangerous driving, reports CornwallLive.

Mrs Bailey's body was discovered in a ditch several metres away by her husband, who went out to search for her when she failed to return from walking their two dogs. She was killed on impact and thrown 18 metres, the court has heard.

The court heard previously from prosecuting barrister Stephen Mooney who suggested Kane hit Mrs Bailey, who was walking her collies to her parents’ house where she helped to keep chickens, because he was checking the Great Western Rail app on his mobile phone. He then drove his badly damaged Land Rover Defender to Plymouth and then Exeter railway stations, where he eventually parked and boarded the sleeper train and a subsequent flight to Frankfurt.

Mr Mooney said the lengths Kane went to continue the journey and the short time for which he stopped after the accident showed how important catching the flight was to him.

Taking the stand wearing spectacles, a light blue shirt and a blue suit, Kane confirmed that he is married with three children and runs a family business selling safety equipment around the world.

He also said he has a small interest in Cornish Crabbers boat manufacturing business in Rock and had been socialising with friends the evening of the tragedy, during which he had a glass of wine, although the prosecution does not allege he was drink driving or speeding at the time of the collision.

Kane also confirmed to defence barrister Patrick Gibbs, QC, that he was familiar with Trewiston Lane, having driven it and also jogged along it occasionally.

He said he heard and felt a forceful bang before getting out of the Land Rover and looking around it, noticing some damage.

Kane said: “I didn’t know what I had hit and thought it was an animal or a wheelie bin. I couldn’t see or hear anything.

“I found the wheel trim on the road and put in on the backseat and went back into the driver’s seat and drove the car to see if it was roadworthy.

“There’s a T-junction at the end of the lane and I remember saying if the vehicle works to that point it is OK. It drove as it previously would have been driven and the brakes and steering worked.”

The defendant was then asked why he didn’t turn back or leave the car to which he replied: “I wish I had but the car felt safe to drive and I hadn’t seen what I had hit, therefore I carried on the journey.”

Mr Gibbs and Kane then went through how Kane headed towards Bodmin, where he noticed the sleeper had gone, before moving on to Plymouth, where he parked the vehicle only to find he missed the train, a man in the railway station advising him that he could catch it at Exeter, which he did, at about 1am.

Kane then caught the Heathrow Express from London Paddington and flew to Frankfurt for two meetings which finished around mid-afternoon.

It was while in Germany that Kane said he found out that he had hit Mrs Bailey.

(Image: Google)

Asked when he found out that someone had died in Trewiston Lane he said: “I saw a BBC website for the Cornwall region that said there had been a hit-and-run along with a photograph of the lane. I was shocked and went very cold. I then realised what had happened.”

Kane said he booked a train to Cornwall to present himself at a police station and after landing in the UK and ringing his wife, officers arrived at his house and transported him to the South West.

“The reconstruction shows I should have seen her and therefore a competent person would have,” Mr Kane said, before reiterating that he did not know why he didn’t see Mrs Bailey that night.

He added that he could remember nothing that would have distracted him, that he was travelling at a sensible speed and was not looking at his phone at any time during the journey. Kane, who hasn’t driven since the night of the accident and said he didn’t intend to, told of how the phone was in his pocket throughout.

“If I had felt at any time the vehicle was unsafe to drive I would not have driven it and I was not desperate to catch the train,” he added, also claiming it was not vital that he attended the business meeting.

“I wasn’t on the phone, I wasn’t distracted by another vehicle, I simply didn’t see her.”

In cross examination Mr Mooney again put it to Kane that he had been monitoring the location of his train on the phone while driving, asking him how he knew the train, which he already admitted was sometimes late, had already departed. Kane replied that he knew by the time displayed in his car.